Every fortnight, Kamal Nath's private plane makes a landing in Chhindwara district, his Lok Sabha constituency that includes Patalkot. He then helihops to at least two dozen remote villages before returning. The MP has also set up a huge office-cum-residential complex to monitor development works in the constituency, and a retinue of permanent staff is stationed there to receive applications and, reportedly, pursue each. A daily progress report is sent to the boss in Delhi.

It may appear that Kamal Nath manages his constituency like a huge corporate house. But he revels in his easy accessibility. ``There is not a single village in my constituency where I don't know people by name,'' he claims.

``Tumhari maa ab theek hain?(Is yourmother well now?),'' he asks on spotting a young man among the crowd that mobs him as he comes out of his Shikarpur bungalow to meet people. The man quietly identifies himself as Pappu Sahu, adding that his mother had been admitted to Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital for treatment of cancer. Kamal Nath waves him away, smiling and walking to the next person: ``I know. Tell me if you need anything else.'' Even BJP supporters admit that anyone going to Delhi from Chhindwara finds Kamal Nath very helpful.

The Chhindwara locals, like Anand Baxi, talk about the progress the once extremely backward region has seen. ``Today, every big village in Patalkot has a school, medical facilities and handpumps for drinking water. Even a one-house settlement like Gujja Domri has electricity,'' he says. Signs of recently acquired prosperity can be seen in all the small towns of the district. The change has touched the Bharia tribals too. So much so that the charge by BJP leader Sr Gauri Shankar Shejwar that a starving tribal ofPatalkot had stolen and eaten his neighour's bull has led to outrage.

``Bilkul jhooth (Absolutely false),'' says Mehtab Shah Uike, sarpanch of village Karyan Patir, of the charge. The tribals are angry not because they have been called thieves but at the suggestion that they still eat beef like their ancestors. This runs contrary to their efforts to adopt some of the traits of Hinduism. Many of them worship Hindu deities and have become vegetarians.

`Hamari bhi izzat hai,'' says Bhure Lal. The hurt Uike addds: ``Our ancestors might have eaten beef but no one does it today. In any case, a bull costs Rs 5,000.'' Uike belongs to the comparatively educated younger generation of Bharias which came out of a model ashram for tribals set up in 1984-85 at Bijauri, one of the 12 tiny villages comprising Patalkot region.

``We are getting educated,'' he says. ``We should not be treated as outcasts.'' And as if to prove a point, he boasts: ``I know what Kargil is all about (the battle is otherwise lost onthe people here). Saheb told us about it when he came in his helicopter.''

Kamal Nath's popularity is evident wherever he goes, like in Padri. Former BJP MLA Madhavrao Khavse belonged to the village and during his party's rule in the state had got then chief minister Sundarlal Patwa to announce a Rs 70-lakh drinking water project for the region. Now Kamal Nath asks residents: ``What happened to it? Who got it started?'' They reply, in unison: ``You did!''

At Pandura town on the border of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the Congress leader surprises his own party workers with his arrival. The Pandura Block Congress Committee had earlier passed a resolution asking Kamal Nath not to visit for votes. ``Don't you trust us?'' they ask him. ``Don't you like my face?'' a shocked but pleased Kamal Nath counters, adding that he had come to condole the death of a local social worker.

``I don't intend spending more than four days in Chhindwara,'' the smug leader later says, turning to this journalist.``Most of thetime, I will be helping my friends in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.'' His campaign itinerary includes Baitul, Balghat, Damoh, Mandsaur, Sagar, Bhind and Jabalpur seats in Madhya Pradesh and Wasim, Ramtek, Buldhana, Mahar and Wardha in Maharashtra.

Some of the time, of course, will be spent pursuing a favourite cause: making life difficult for Patwa. The BJP leader shifted to the Hoshangabad Lok Sabha constituency after losing to Kamal Nath in Chhindwara last time. The Congress MP now plans to visit each Assembly segment of Hoshangabad to make sure that Patwa bites dust. Theirs is an old rivalry, Patwa having dealt Kamal Nath his first electoral defeat since 1980 in a 1997 by-election.

The rest of his tour is part of a grander vision to expand his political constituency. The wide support he received from partymen during his recent rallies in Indore and Ujjain seem to have prompted Kamal Nath to plan a bigger role for himself in Madhya Pradesh politics. He is simultaneously trying to emerge as a politicalfactor in the entire Mahakoshal and Vidarbha region of central India.

This also seems to be the right time as the clout of the other state Congress heavyweights like Arjun Singh and the Shukla brothers is shrinking. Some of Kamal Nath's supporters have started saying this openly, such as a state minister who bragged at an Indore rally recently: ``Digvijay and Kamal Nath are the only leaders in Madhya Pradesh left with a support base.'' A better tribute came from the Opposition BJP. As one of its leaders put it, ``In Chhindwara, we have to fight Kamal Nath and not the Congress.''